Bewitched - A New Chapter
by Oxnate
Summary: Tabitha Stevens had even worse taste in men than her mother and it cost her her life. Now her daughter, Tara, is leaving home and going away to college where she'll meet the most interesting people, including her estranged family.


Bewitched -

by Oxnate

Tabitha Stevens had even worse taste in men than her mother and it cost her her life. Now her daughter, Tara, is leaving home and going away to college where she'll meet the most interesting people, including her estranged family.

Disclaimer: Do not own BtVS or Bewitched.

* * *

"Mother?!" Samantha called. When her mother appeared, she asked, "Did you feel it too?"

"Only barely, dear, only barely. Less than I ever felt Darrin." Endora admitted.

"I wish you would have called him by his name more when he was alive." Samantha groused briefly. "But you did feel it too. Do you think it was Tabitha?"

Endora shook her head. "She's been hiding for so long. I doubt she let her guard down suddenly and then put it back up again. Besides, it was too faint to be her. I can feel Adam's connection much more strongly than that. I don't want to get your hopes up, but what we felt may have been your grandchild. The connection was definitely moving before it was hidden again. And it went cold somewhere in the Los Angeles area."

"The states." Samantha breathed. "I haven't been back there since..."

Endora took her daughter's hand comfortingly. "There, there, dear. I know. But it's the completely opposite coast. And if it _is_ your grandchild, I'll need your help to find him or her. Especially if they ended up on the Hellmouth like it feels they did."

"She." Samantha said with conviction. "I could feel it. I have a granddaughter."

"Congratulations, Samantha!" Mother and daughter embraced. Then they started the arduous task of packing up for a trip to the Hellmouth. As the packing was completed by magic, that wasn't the arduous part. Instead it was the worry about what the future and the results the trip might or might not bring.

* * *

The energies of the Hellmouth meant they couldn't just pop in like they could most places in the world. They popped into the magical side of LAX and rented a car from there. Samantha, as the one who had lived in the mortal world the longest, drove. "Well, there goes that plan." she said as they passed the Sunnydale city limits.

"What plan?" Endora asked.

"I was hoping once we crossed the threshold of the Hellmouth, I'd be able to sense her." Samantha explained.

A pained expression passed over Endora's face. "Darling, you knew that wouldn't happen. That's not how Hellmouths work. Remember, our magic will be horribly suppressed for as long as we stay here. We won't be able to sense each other at a distance and even the simplest of spells will require all of our power and concentration."

"I know, Mother. I know. It's just..."

"We'll find her, baby. Don't you worry. Just leave everything to Mother. We'll find her." Endora patted her daughter's hand. She wanted to pull her into an embrace, but refrained while they were yet driving. "But we must be careful. We're weak for as long as we stay here. Perhaps you should use your experience in the mortal world to good use and purchase one of those muskets for protection."

"You want me to buy a gun?!" Samantha exclaimed. Darrin Stevens had been near sitcom level in his conservatism, absolutely forbidding that Sam have anything to do with firearms. "I don't think that's such a good idea. Besides, most of the movies that mortals make show that guns aren't much use against the sort of monsters that are attracted to Hellmouths. And you know how eerily accurate those things tend to be."

"Very well. We'll just have to be cautious in our search."

* * *

Tara Maclay unzipped the suitcases that held all her worldly possessions and began unpacking. She didn't have much. Her family wasn't rich and she had even less than that. But it was good to be in Sunnydale and free from her family. She didn't know what it was while she was on the bus from home to Sunnydale, but she'd felt strange. Horribly exposed even, like someone had been watching her. But she felt better here, like Sunnydale was her home but without her overbearing family to look after.

* * *

Tara had studied her mother's spell books inside and out and had never found a spell to take away a stutter. So when picking classes, she picked as many big lectures as she could. Classes where she could disappear unnoticed into the crowd and not be expected to participate.

She wasn't going to participate in any extra-curricular activities at all until she passed a booth for the campus Wicca group. She was surprised that witches were so open in Sunnydale that they were actively recruiting new members. She signed up immediately.

The Wicca group was not what she was expecting. After a strange blessing and then introductions, the girls of the group started talking about things that weren't in any of her mother's books and clearly had nothing to do with actual magic. She didn't say much other than her name, but the girls still made her feel welcome, even if they weren't real witches. She was very, very tempted to never show up again, but just couldn't bring herself to quit. After all, none of the girls had any magical potential, the way her mother had taught her to sense it in herself and others. But they were the first friends she'd made since she came to Sunnydale and she just couldn't leave them. Yet. Though if Erica said 'Blessed be' one more time, Tara would be tempted to curse the girl with laryngitis. In fact, she found and checked out an actual spell book about just those kind of spells. It was called 'Spells of Speech and Silence'.

As it was the first spell book other than her mother's she had ever seen, she started studying it thoroughly. She'd hoped to find a cure for her stutter within its pages, but hadn't so far. She could take her time though, as she could renew it until someone else wanted it, and no one else had checked out the book in years.

* * *

Endora glared into space while tapping her fingers angrily. She wasn't angry at any person in particular, except perhaps the detestable mortal that her foolish granddaughter had run away with. Wanting to follow in her mother's footsteps, no doubt. Endora had never appreciated Durwood much. He had sought over and over again to squash Samantha's heritage and birthright. But at least _he_ hadn't taken Samantha out of their world completely. Samantha's family had been free to visit and vice versa as long as they were willing to put up with Duncan's glaring and his odious rules. Tabitha's man had either forced the girl to put up some sort of shield that cut her off from her family (and probably most of her magic) or had found a Hellmouth that would do the deed for him.

Whatever had happened, Endora's great-granddaughter had grown up cut off from her mother's side of the family and probably her magic as well. And as soon as she had left home, she seemed to instinctively find another Hellmouth to hide in.

It was quite annoying. Hence the tapping.

And now, either she and Samantha were quite a bit rustier at locator spells than she thought, or the Hellmouth was interfering with their magic yet again. They could barely even sense each other even a few blocks away, which meant they wouldn't sense this new granddaughter unless she was within a few feet. Perhaps 30 feet or closer.

But magic wasn't working right and the more mundane ways were failing them as well. They had been literally laughed out of the Sunnydale Police station. They didn't know her name, how old she was, or what she looked like. Though knowing Tabitha's genes and that her man had been described as handsome, it was likely that she was quite beautiful.

But trying to find a beautiful witch in this southern California town was like trying to find a needle in a stack of pins.

It was time to call out the big guns.

* * *

In Samantha and Endora's world, truly dark witches and warlocks were dealt with very swiftly and permanently, such that there were no dark witches within their sphere of influence. There were, however, witches who skirted that line between dark and light. Malvina was such a witch. The last time their paths had crossed, Malvina had cursed Samantha back to the time of Henry VIII without her memories or her powers. Samantha had chosen to be the better witch and had not pursued justice against the other witch since she and Darrin had survived the encounter. Now, however, she was calling in a favor. The theory was that Malvina was more familiar with the grayer aspects of magic and had spent time on a weaker Hellmouth and would be able to locate Samantha's granddaughter where lighter witches had failed.

"If she's here, she's either horribly dark, or so unmagical that she doesn't even notice." Malvina said with a shudder. Even she didn't want to spend more time than she had to on the strongest Hellmouth in the Western Hemisphere.

"When we want your opinion, we'll give it to you." Endora sneered.

"Fine." Malvina rolled her eyes. "I'll need a drop of your blood." she told Samantha.

"I think not." Endora stated categorically.

Malvina sighed theatrically. "Fine. I'll cast the spell on a compass. It will still require the blood, but you can be in control of it. Is that satisfactory to you, Endora?"

Sam shot a pleading look to her mother. She was getting desperate to find her granddaughter. They had been on the Hellmouth for weeks now. All they knew was that she hadn't left. Maurice was keeping his senses open for her and would call if he picked up anything.

"Very well. But any funny business..." Endora warned.

Malvina conjured up a compass and the components she'd need for the spell and began to chant. "There." she handed over small, brass compass when she was done. "Place a drop of your blood on the middle of the needle and it'll point to your granddaughter. Now we're even."

"We're even if it works." Endora warned.

Malvina's lips thinned. "I want to be done with owing you anything. It'll work. If it doesn't, you know how to reach me." With that, she exited the room and drove for the edge of the Hellmouth. Even she couldn't teleport or even fly very well inside the influence of the Hellmouth.

"Well, here goes nothing." Samantha said as she pricked her finger and gently let one drop of blood fall on the compass.

* * *

A/N: Spells of Speech and Silence is the book that Tara was using to research the mass laryngitis that infested Sunnydale when the Gentlemen came to town. This is my explanation for why she would have such a book.

A/N2: Witches in Bewitched sometimes have nearly Demigod-like powers (which is fine for sitcom writers but less cool for actual stories) with no seeming cost for their magic. I hope to get into the costs later, but the powerlessness on Hellmouths is just part of balancing their powers.


End file.
